Data centres are facilities that centralises an organization’s IT operations and equipment by storing, maintaining and managing an organization’s servers. Data centres house a network’s most critical systems that are of vital importance for the continuity of data processing needs of an organization. Well-known service providers provide highly efficient and secure data centre solutions to keep your servers performing at peak level. Their sophisticated and well-equipped data centres provide fast and efficient cloud solution service for private and business applications.
Data Centre Explained
Data centres are centralised repositories, either physical or virtual, that are used to house computer system and associated components for storage, processing and distribution of data.
These facilities that house vital systems and components for critical IT operations typically have back up power supplies, environmental controls, network connections and various important security safeguards in place.
Components of Data Centre
There are four primary components of a data centre. They are as following:
White space—this typically refers to the usable space available for IT equipment.
Support infrastructure—as the name suggests it refers to all the additional space and equipment required to ensure uninterrupted data centres operations. Support infrastructure includes transformers, UPS, air conditioners, chillers, remote transmission units, etc.
It is to be noted that in large data centres, this support infrastructure can consume significantly more space than white space.
IT equipment—examples of IT equipment can be your racks, spaces, cables, servers, storage devices, management systems, network components, etc that are required for delivering the IT services emanating from the data centres to the organization.
Operations—this refers to a team of expert IT professionals who are entrusted with the task of looking after the data centres and its various components.
They ensure that systems are properly managed, maintained, operated and upgraded for optimised performance.
Importance of Data Centres
Data centres play a critical role in an organization’s IT operations, decision making abilities and subsequently its financial health. However, it must be noted that data centres are hard and expensive to maintain as they require constant monitoring for protection against from viruses, theft, accidental or international manipulation.
Data centres also require power supplies, battery banks, generators, heating, ventilation, exhaust systems, etc along with well-constructed, sturdy building that houses servers, storage devices, cables, and a connection to the Internet.
All this requires tremendous amount of money and other resources. It is therefore important for an organization to look for a data centre service provider that has the resources and expertise to house your hardware in a highly secure environment.
Some of the important features you should look for in a data centre before you entrust them with the task of housing your server and other important hardware are as following:
Advanced Level of Data Security
It is important for all the data centres to be equipped with top of the line security features so that your mission critical data and information remains safe and secure.
Encryption – this is an important feature that keeps the data safe during transmission. Data is encrypted before it is transferred and only the machine it is intended for possess the ability to decrypt it. Sophisticated encryption technique allows data travelling between an organization and the data centre away from intruders and hackers.
Password protection and individual security—password protection and individual security is important to prevent unauthorised access to your business sensitive data. Users are given their own username and password with the provision to locking someone out after three unsuccessful attempts.
Redundant power— if your organization maintains business-critical systems that simply can’t go down, be sure that the data centre has a second electrical backbone connection. This is important as the facility housing your expensive hardware may fail to respond to unscheduled interruption in absence of an alternative power source. Quality facilities have separate sources of electricity and powerful backup generators to ensure constant availability despite power failures or any other disasters.
Backup Internet facility—just as it is important to maintain redundant power backup, service providers should also make provisions for internet backup facility. This is important as the buried cables may get out or overhead cables may be hit by a travelling vehicle. Reliable internet circuitry that can keep the net going could keep IT managers assured that they’ve done what they can to eliminate potential downtime.
Written SLAs
Any data centre contract should come complete with a specifically worded service level agreement (SLA). The SLA should guarantee stringiest of security, exceptionally high levels of uptime, high service response, unlimited bandwidth and physical access protections among other elements. The SLA should also contain provisions for the steps that can be taken if the service provider fails to keep up with its promise of uptime, maintenance, customer support, response efficiency in case of crisis, etc.